Princes Pier

Image © Peter Glenane

Community-focused design

Princes Pier on Melbourne’s foreshore is the second-largest timber-piled wharf structure in Australia. Our architects and heritage specialists worked on its conservation and transformation into a community-focused flexible public open space for Major Projects Victoria.

Constructed in 1912-15, the pier was decommissioned in 1985. Together with the adjacent Station Pier, the complex is an exemplar of pre-containerised shipping facilities and has a rich social history associated with immigration, trade and the events of two world wars. Fire damage at Princes Pier had caused the removal of most of its structures, except for the gatehouse which has now been conserved and restored.

Our brief

Key to the design approach taken in the pier’s transformation was the making of interventions that invite human interaction. Drawing people onto the pier, and through its series of new public spaces, is the magical spectacle of a forest of timber piles that stretches out into Port Phillip Bay — the outer 360m of original piles have been retained undecked, the tops trimmed and capped. They impress upon the viewer the enormous scale of the structure.

The organisation of spaces on the reinstated concrete deck echoes the original pier configuration, which included a central raised area running full length. The main space includes a ‘lawn’ flanked by trees, the restored gatehouse and its iron gates, and two timber decked areas. These ‘rooms’ are flanked by circulation space, with an open area at the seaward end. The new illuminated pillar signage was designed by artist Stephen Hennessey.

Details

Client

Major Projects Victoria

Date

2012

Status

Completed

Location

Melbourne/Naarm

Traditional Owners

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people

Image © Peter Glenane

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We must relinquish control, placing faith in the emergence of beauty beyond the lifespan of the idea.

This is not an act of resistance against natural forces, but one of deference—an architectural anticipation of the environment’s enduring influence.

In doing so, the building is allowed to evolve, becoming a vessel shaped not solely by human intent but by the authorship of the elements.

Time is the architect.

KAI CHEN, DIRECTOR AND FOUNDING PRINCIPAL

Telling Stories

Key to the design approach taken in the pier's transformation was to make interventions that invite human interaction and help make it a community place. Our work included the development of an interpretation plan and its implementation, processes that we integrated into the project as a whole.
The Lovell Chen-designed free-standing interpretation panels, developed in association with Jill Barnard, tell the story of the pier's history and close association with migrant arrivals and military departures. They also explain the significance of the various historic features that can be seen on the pier, which can be viewed as elements of the wider interpretation programme.

Image © Peter Glenane

Image © Major Projects Victoria

Image © Peter Glenane

Image © David Simmonds

Image © Peter Glenane

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Elements of the scheme include a kiosk housing screens providing access to digitised material (developed by others), seating made of reclaimed timbers from the pier structure which now bear the names of vessels that docked at Princes Pier, and a specially commissioned installation by Stephen Hennessy that provides the pier’s identity. The reverse of Hennessey’s pillars gave us an opportunity to display an historic image that captures the romantic aspect of long-distance departure locations.

We also designed the wayfinding signage for the pier, which connects the new public open space into the series of historic locations along the foreshore and port. They are linked by the Port of Melbourne Corporation's Heritage Trail, also developed by Lovell Chen, in association with Büro North.